1919]
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
649
bodies from the sky, and called the attention of the scientific world to the' fact that several masses of iron, of which he specially considers two, had in all probability come from outer space to this planet."
In 1802 Edward Howard read a paper before the Royal Society of London giving an account of the comparative results of a chemical and mineralogical investigation of four stones which had fallen in different places. He found from the similarity of their component parts " very strong evidence in favour of the assertion that they had fallen on our globe. They have been found at places very remote from each other, and at periods also sufficiently distant. The mineralogists who have examined them agree that they have no resemblance to mineral substances properly so called, nor have they been described by mineralogical authors." After this quotation from Howard, Fletcher continues :
" 13. This paper aroused much interest in the scientific world, and, though Chladni's theory that such stones come from outer space was still not accepted in France, it was there deemed more worthy of consideration after Poisson (following Laplace) had shown that a body shot from the moon in the direction of the earth, with an initial velocity of 7592 feet a second, would not fall back upon the moon, but would actually, after a journey of sixty-four hours, reach the earth, upon which, neglecting the resistance of the air, it would fall with a velocity of about 31,508 feet a second."
" 14. Whilst the minds of the scientific men of France were in this unsettled condition, there came a report that another shower of stones had fallen, this time...within easy reach of Paris. To settle the matter finally, if possible, the physicist Biot was directed by the Minister of the Interior to inquire into the event on the spot. After a careful examination...Biot was convinced that on Tuesday, April 26, 1803, about 1 p.m., there was a violent explosion in the neighbourhood of l'Aigle...that some moments before...a fire ball in'quick motion was seen...that on the same day many stones fell in the neighbourhood of 1'Aigle. Biot estimated the number of the stones at two or three thousand....With the exception of a few little clouds of ordinary character, the sky was quite clear. The exhaustive report of Biot, and the conclusive nature of his proofs, compelled the whole of the scientific world to recognise the fall of stones on the earth from outer space as an undoubted fact."
I commend this history to the notice of those scientific men who are so sure that they understand the character of Nature's operations as to feel justified in rejecting without examination reports of occurrences which seem to conflict with ordinary experience. Every tiro now knows that the stones to be seen in most museums had an origin thought impossible by some of the leading and most instructed men of about a century ago.
Other cases of strange occurrences, the nature or reality of which is, Imerous accounts of the fall offuse to have anything to say ta them. Isó(i.e. believers).